For people living along the Delaware River, 1955 has become the measuring stick for flooding and property damage. The highwater mark of 43.7 feet at Easton caused by Hurricane Diane on Aug. 18-19, 1955, remains a record.
But it is not alone. A series of three major floods between 2004 and 2006 similarly shocked the region.
In 2004, remnants of Hurricane Ivan caused the Delaware to flood from Delaware Water Gap to Easton to New Hope, forcing thousands of people to leave their homes and massive damage. The river crested at 2 p.m. Sept. 18 in Easton at 31.6 feet, 9.6 feet above flood stage.
That mark was topped just months later, when a storm April 3-4, 2005, raised the river level to 35.6 feet in Easton; and again in June 2006 when it reached 35.5 feet.
While severe weather has caused flooding since then, the region has largely been spared the calamitous events of Hurricane Diane and the 2004-06 floods. That’s not by accident.
Better forecasts
In many ways, weather forecasters in 1955 could hardly be blamed for the Diane forecasts.
Then, tracking hurricanes was far from an exact science, with no weather satellites to watch such a fickle weather-maker, The Morning Call previously reported. They could not track the low pressure system forming over eastern Pennsylvania that drew Diane northward over the already rain-swollen creeks and rivers.
“We are in a much better place by leaps and bounds” when it comes to weather predictions, said Ray Kruzdlo with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, New Jersey, which serves the Lehigh ValleyKruzdlo, a senior service hydrologist, listed several reasons. Forecast accuracy is much better, he said. The weather service’s three-day weather tracking today is as accurate as its one-day forecast in 2002, he said.
In the last few years, he said, the agency has improved potential advisory forecasts up to 72 hours for major storms, hurricanes and the like. Previously, he said, advisory notices were sent 48 hours in advance.
The agency today provides a host of alerts, products and graphics to aid in knowing when a serious storm could hit, he said.
“None of this was going on in 1955,” Kruzdlo said. “There has been a huge leap since ’55.”
Government planning
Six years after Hurricane Diane, in 1961, state and federal officials formed the Delaware River Basin Commission, which the agency says is the nation’s first interstate-federal water resource organization. Diane — and Hurricane Connie, which hit a week earlier — were not the sole reasons for forming the DRBC, but they played a significant factor.
The two weather events highlighted the need for a unified approach to flood control and water resource management in the river region, which stretches approximately 330 miles from upstate New York to its confluence with the Atlantic Ocean.
Prior to the DRBC’s creation, some 75 federal, state and interstate agencies held “splintered powers and duties” within the basin region, making for a lack of cooperation and coordination, according to the commission.
“Almost any bank you stand on in the river, you are looking across another state,” spokesperson Kate Schmidt said, with it touching Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Delaware.
“The commission works best through cooperation,” said Elizabeth Brown, another DRBC spokesperson. She said much of the agency’s work requires sharing information, including technical and scientific predictions and measurements with partners such as the National Weather Service and Army Corps of Engineers.
Following the ’06 flood, the DRBC put together a Flood Mitigation Task Force that looked into ways to help people prepare for, recover from and lessen the impact of future floods. It assembled 44 recommendations on ways to improve reservoir operations, flood-plain mapping, stormwater management and more.
Besides improvements in monitoring floods, government officials have done a better job with treating stormwater runoff, including when there is new construction, said Christa Kelleher, an assistant professor of engineering at Lafayette College.
“A lot of time stormwater management is focused on smaller storms,” said Kelleher, who is also a hydrologist. “So when we get a Hail Mary [storm] like that one, it won’t be able to handle all that water.”
However, better stormwater-runoff management can slow water and prevent much of it from rushing into stormwater systems and rivers at the same time, she said.
Always a danger
Amy Shallcross, DRBC manager of water resource operations, said while preparation might be better along the Delaware, Lehigh and other rivers, the population along those waterways has increased since 1955. More people living along the water could be susceptible to flooding because of increased development, she said.
“We’ve done a lot to protect people from flooding,” Shallcross said, “but you can always have a different storm that causes flooding, a larger storm.”
Rachel Hogan Carr, executive director of Easton’s Nurture Nature Center, a nonprofit that encourages understanding and resilience regarding environmental risks, said communities should be asking such things as: What would we do if we get a flood that is significantly larger than in 1955?
Government weather entities have tools such as inundation maps that can show people what nearby areas would be underwater at various river heights, she said. But all the technology can’t stop water — more than 100 people died in flash-flooding July 4 in Texas.
“Communities can map these worst case scenarios and ask: Who would be affected?” she said. “How would we contact them? What if it was the middle of the night? Make that plan now.
“And then, talk with the community regularly on sunny days about what flooding can bring. Share forecast tools and how to use them, and engage the community in remembering its flood risk is part of our environment today, and not just a piece of history to be remembered.”
Most importantly, the DRBC’s Schmidt said, is people should be alert to flooding dangers.
“It’s important to underscore the idea of coordination and tools [people] can use today to see about flooding,” she said.
And it’s not just those who live along a body of water. High water can affect travelers from flash flooding. A storm last month in Lehigh County sent up to 6 inches of water on roads, including Upper Saucon Township. In July 2023, five people were killed in Bucks County when their vehicles were swept away by rapidly rising waters in Houghs Creek, a tributary of the Delaware River.
Between alerts on cellphones, other forms of communication, and updated forecasting, everyone should be “weather aware,” Schmidt said.
“There are lot of things we can do to help keep ourselves as prepared as possible,” she said, adding that a host of agencies work to coordinate and disseminate information on bad weather.
George Kreitz of Williams Township, who still lives in the home where Hurricane Diane struck 70 years ago, said he’s ready if another flood comes.
“I was prepared then, and I’m prepared now,” Kreitz said.
“My father taught me very wisely,” he said. “When the water comes up, get the hell out of the way. That’s what you do. You don’t try to fight Mother Nature. You get out of the way so you don’t drown.”
Contact Morning Call reporter Anthony Salamone at asalamone@mcall.com.
